My Mid-Life Crisis -- The Official Soundtrack

: Name: Bill Tomson; Location: Brainerd, Minnesota, United States

I'm just an average guy who thinks he needs a voice on the Internet. All material on this particular blog is copyright © 2006 - 2009 by William J. Tomson unless otherwise noted, except for the reader comments which remain the intellectual property of their respective authors.

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Tuesday, July 31, 2007

Truck, blogging, and other stuff

I just finished reading the cover story on this morning’s edition of USA Today. Yeah, I actually looked at a newspaper. Shocking, huh? While I’m not going to comment on the actual story itself, I will mention a little blurb that was included in it. According to the blurb, there exist approximately 93 million or so blogs around the old Intartubes. No wonder I have so few readers. You’re all busy reading the other 92, 999, 999, and then you’re just too tired to read mine.

I got home a few minutes ago from the route, and now I’m enjoying my post-work coffee. This is my favorite time of day. I can relax, and pound out a few words to post here at the Mid-Life Crisis, or, if I’ve written it ahead of time and it’s already posted, I can just relax with the coffee and do some random surfing.

I picked up a tarp and some bungee cords on the way home this morning, in preparation for bringing Gerald the S10 home. I’ve also made arrangements to bring him home sometime tomorrow, or maybe the next day. Then I can relax for a while, and figure out at my own pace what the hell to do about him.

As expected, I had a ton of returned papers yesterday from Friday and Sunday. The Sundays I don’t mind picking up, because I don’t actually deliver them. The Fridays on the other hand, well, it’s frustrating, because they make us take SO many of them out, and they don’t care that few of them sell. Most places on my route yesterday I picked up more than I dropped off. Here’s what my back seat looked like when I was done:

Keep in mind that while it looks like the stacks end at the point where I’ve drawn the red line; they actually go even farther down, almost the exact same height.

Today, I think I’m going to spend some time perusing the classified ads, both online and in Sunday’s paper, and see if I can pick up some additional employment during the day, part-time. I’m not in dire need of more cash, I just want to be able to supplement my savings accounts better than I have been doing, and I also realized recently that I’m 40 years old, and there’s still a lot of stuff I want to do. I won’t be able to do any of them without some additional cash. Who knows? Maybe I’ll find such an incredible job that I can give up the paper route.

I think I’ll get started now. TTFN.

Labels: Blogging, Classifieds, Paper Route, Truck

Sunday, July 29, 2007

Relay For Life 2007

First, listen:

Gabcast! Bill's audio crisis #4

Like I said, I’m not the greatest at thinking on my feet. That’s something I should work on.

Here are the photos of the main luminaria display:

This is technically supposed to be one long picture, but my cheapie cell phone camera doesn’t have a ‘panoramic’ setting.

This was the second time I ever wore the shirt that I had made for last year’s Relay event. Here is what it looks like:

The Front

The Back

Some people may think it’s a bit morbid, but I only wear it to the Relay for Life, once a year, so it’s really not. I got a lot of compliments on it there last year. It would only be morbid if I wore it all the time.

Not much else to say about the evening that wasn’t already covered in the recording. I took the photos after I made the recording, as I had to wait for the people lighting them to finish and get out of the frames. I left shortly afterward. As I said, I had been up since 0100, and I was starting to get a headache, so I went back to Victor, put his top down, and drove around a bit before heading home, just enjoying the cool night air. It wasn’t long after I got home that I was fast asleep.

Labels: Audio, Mom, Photo, Relay

Friday, July 27, 2007

I fought the law, and it was a draw

I borrowed dad’s van again for the route this morning. It was made interesting by the fact that it currently has no taillights. There are signal lights and brake lights, but no taillights. I didn’t worry about it though, because as I told Dad, “I never see cops when I’m out on the route.”

Dad’s response: “Well, you will now, because there are no taillights.”

That did it. I wasn’t six blocks from my house on the way to the Dispatch before I was pulled over the first time. The cop checked my license, and the proof of insurance, and upon realizing I had no choice but to drive with no taillights, advised me to drive with the four-way flashers turned on. So I did.

I picked up all my papers, and headed to Crosby, the first leg of my daily journey. I got exactly one whole delivery made before I was pulled over for the second time. The Crosby cop told me that it’s illegal to drive with the four-way flashers turned on. He also told me to have the taillights fixed by “tomorrow night.” Since this was about 0300, I have no idea exactly what constitutes “tomorrow night.” I pressed onward.

I finished Crosby and Deerwood without incident. Then I got to Aitkin, and my second stop there when another paper carrier pulled in behind me. “You better be careful,” he warned me. “You don’t have any taillights.”

“Thanks for telling me, John,” was my reply. “The two cops who have pulled me over today didn’t bother mentioning that.”

The third stop in Aitkin was a gas station where an Aitkin County deputy sheriff was refueling his squad car. I took my time exchanging new papers for old, and waited for him to leave. Once he finished gassing up, he just sat in his car, doing paperwork. Screw it, I thought. Fortune favors the bold. I grabbed the proof of insurance, and my driver’s license, and strolled over to the parked squad car.

“Can I help you?” asked the deputy. I handed him the two documents.

“I’ve been pulled over in Brainerd and Crosby so far,” I told him. “Now, it’s your turn.”

He glanced at the documents, and chuckled. “What’s up?”

“I have no taillights,” I said. “They’ve already told me to get them fixed. I just figured I’d tell you now, and save us both some time, because I wouldn’t be two blocks away from here without you pulling me over.”

He laughed, and said, “Yeah you’re right.” He handed me back my license and insurance card. “All right then. Have a good day.”

Oddly enough, the rest of the route passed without incident. It was daylight after another 45 minutes or so, and then I didn’t need the headlights or the taillights. Dad and I exchanged vehicles at the Casino, just like last week, and went on our merry separate ways. I did a bunch of running around once I got the returns dropped off at the Dispatch, so I got home later than usual.

Tonight is the Relay for Life, as I mentioned yesterday. I had to call all over Hell and back to contact my aunt to find out what time it starts, etc. No answer on the home phone. No answer on the cell phone. Her work told me she was off today. No answer on the home phone again, where I left a pissy message. Then I called the cell phone again, and made contact. Lord have mercy.

I’ll probably go to the thing. I doubt I’ll stay all night though. The good news is that it isn’t as hot today as it was last year. This will make the walking easier.

I just went and looked back at my entry from last year about this event, I see that I did 3 ½ miles. I wonder how many I’ll do this year. The heat isn’t going to be as bad, but I personally am in slightly worse shape than last year. I’m not what you’d call an “active person;” my interests are sedentary at best. This is what can happen when you spend around 14 months outside of the work force. The paper route is not exactly the most physically demanding job, either. Don’t get me wrong; I’m not making excuses for my lousy physical shape. If I actually gave a damn, I could get into shape quite easily.

I will write up the evening’s events for Monday’s chapter of the Mid-Life Crisis. Have an awesome weekend, and see you then.

Labels: Fitness, Police, Relay, Taillights

Thursday, July 26, 2007

Another installment of random thoughts

Another day of heat. According to various forecasts I’ve seen, it’s supposed to be thunderbooming today. I wish it were. I love thunderboomers. But, apparently now it’s only supposed to happen late tonight. I wish it would happen now, during the day. I’d love to open all the windows and let the fresh air blow through the house. It’s so still outside right now, I don’t dare.

Tomorrow, I think, is this year’s Relay For Life. I remember how friggin’ hot it was last year. I was hoping that it wouldn’t be that hot again this year, but with the weather as it’s been the past few days, I’m figuring it will be. I think we set heat records last year. I do know that the temps hit triple digits. It was just unreasonably hot last year. Plus, last year I hauled a huge cooler, and a bunch of lawn chairs for me, my aunt, and my stepsister Amber. This year, I’m only bringing a small personal cooler for myself. I probably won’t stay the entire night either. I didn’t last year. At any rate, the evening should give me a blog entry for Monday.

I’m not inviting anybody this year, either. I’ll just meet my aunt, and hang out with her group for however long any of us are there. I haven’t heard from Amber but once since we got the estate closed out and finalized, so I see no reason to contact her about it. Once everything was done with the estate, and everybody got their money, I stopped hearing from them, imagine that. Amber did email me once however, about 4 days after the anniversary of Mom’s death. It was brief. I replied, and that’s been it. Oh well. Not my problem.

I have to swap vehicles with my dad again tonight; tomorrow is Friday, so the paper count is once again going to increase exponentially. I’ll be glad when the summer’s over, in that respect. Supposedly, things will go back to normal after August. I’m not counting on it, though. So, I have to swap Victor for Dad’s van. Then, we’ll trade back tomorrow morning at the Casino, just like last week. It worked out pretty good.

I think that’s it for today. It’s just too hot to try and write at the moment, even with my A/C partly on.

Labels: A/C, Estate, Heat, Relay

Wednesday, July 25, 2007

Truck decisions, the neverending saga

I called my dad to come over here on Monday afternoon when he got off work so we could discuss this truck business I have going on. As I stated in an earlier entry, I have about 47 people giving me advice on what to do about it. What’s odd, is that those people have given me about 48 different bits of advice. Yeah, it’s an exaggeration. But, it’s my blog, whatcha gonna do ‘bout it?

I told him all of the different options I had about what to do with it, and then I ventured forth my claim that I was ready to just haul the damn thing home, cover it with a tarp, and not deal with it until I was good and ready. Dad thought that over, and agreed that I had actually had a good idea.

That’s what I’m going to do then.

Yesterday, I called the auto shop where the truck currently sits, and asked for an itemized estimate. I said that I was negotiating with my bank for a possible repair loan since my insurance doesn’t cover me for deer. He emailed it to me later in the afternoon. I’ve already been looking online and pricing parts, and I can find them for less than what he’s figuring. I’m thinking about buying the necessary parts one or two at a time as I can afford them, and then seeing if I can either do the work myself, or find somebody to do it at a fairly reasonable price, since I’ll be supplying all the parts.

Maybe, just maybe, the truck can eventually live again.

I had resigned myself to tossing it on the scrap heap, but it was pointed out to me that the junkyard could conceivably fix it themselves, and then sell it. I was also considering selling it for parts. My thing is, if I do give the truck up, once I get rid of it, I do NOT want to ever see it again. That is why I won’t sell it to somebody else to fix and drive, unless they live at least an hour out of the town where I live. That’s also why I don’t want to run the risk of a local junkyard fixing it and then selling it to somebody local. Maybe it’s silly to feel this way; I don’t know, but that’s the way I do feel, and it cannot be helped.

So that’s where I am now. Today after work, I’m going to start calling various towing agencies and find out who will be the cheapest to haul the truck home from where it is, roughly 16-17 miles away. Once it’s home, I can then relax and take my time with it.

Labels: Estimate, Parts, Towing, Truck

Tuesday, July 24, 2007

Faith, money, and oncology

Most long time readers of the Mid-Life Crisis know that most of my entries last year had to do with my dealing with the estate of my late mother. Mom passed away on May 21, 2006, from pancreatic cancer.

If you follow current events, you may have noticed that her college roommate died this past Friday from colon cancer. Yes, Tammy Faye was Mom’s roommate at North Central Bible College in Minneapolis until Tammy ran off with some guy from Michigan named Jim Bakker.

Mom never kept in touch with Tammy whatsoever. In retrospect, considering the PTL scandals that erupted in the mid-1980s and up to the early 1990s, this was probably a good thing. Mom didn’t shy away for any specific reasons; I think that she probably felt she hadn’t really known Tammy all that well to begin with, and didn’t see a point to it.

I was around 10 or 11, I think, when I first found out Mom’s connection to the world of televangelism. I was no stranger to the phenomenon itself; every summer vacation for several years I went out to western New York State to visit Mom’s parents, my maternal grandparents. Every summer that I spent out there I had received a heavy indoctrination into the ways of the Assemblies of God Church. Church services three times a week. Sunday morning, Sunday evening, and Thursday evening. Plus, if the church had anything else going on during the rest of the week, it was certain that I would be in attendance.

Along with the church services came a severe dose of religionized television, most notably Jimmy Swaggart, and of course the PTL Club, starring the above-mentioned Bakker couple. Mom’s parents ate that stuff with a ladle. Most of the extended family out East had been brought up that way, and were just as heavily into it. I went along with all of it for the most part just to keep the peace. I knew it all would end once I returned to Minnesota. Although, as gullible a kid as I was, I’m surprised to this day that I managed to remain untouched by it all.

I will admit though, that once I learned of Mom’s absurd connection to the PTL empire, I began watching it on my own just for the hell of it. I was young enough at the time to be fascinated by the fact that I was but one person away from actually knowing somebody who was on television regularly, and I looked at it from that aspect.

It wasn’t until I grew older that I realized what a charismatic organization the Assemblies of God church is. People were donating everything but their kidneys to the place. A lot of that came out in the “scandals”, about how PTL and the Bakkers bilked people out of literally millions of dollars, but even an agnostic such as myself has to look upon that with some degree of skepticism. You have to be a piece of Samsonite to begin with in order to be “cheated” by these people. All of those people that donated did so willingly. I’m not excusing what the ministries did once they had their hands on the actual greenbacks, please understand. I just don’t happen to believe that people were conned. I watched the show occasionally as a gullible kid, and I never once felt any compulsion to send in money.

As I stated above, Mom never had any contact with Tammy at all, at least not to my knowledge. Her parents were not above the “we’re your college roommate’s parents, so send us autographed stuff” game, though. They would tell anybody who would listen about how they used their “connection” to get stuff from the PTL ministries. Yet, once the big PTL scandal hit, my grandfather was heard to say, in reference to my mother: “I wonder what she thinks of her friends now?”

(As a brief, highly impolite digression, I need to point out that as I got older and smarter, and started to actually notice things, I began to realize that my grandfather on Mom’s side was an incredible asshole. I actually believe I have enough memories of the man to give him his own separate entry. So be it.)

To sum up, I guess I wasn’t really going anywhere in particular with this entry. I just typed up the words as they came to me. A little bit of childhood reminiscing, and a realization that cancer fears no God.

I never met Tammy, and I never really cared to, but with my experience last year with my mother, no cancer in the world is a fate I would wish on anybody. I also find it kind of ironic that my mother and her college roommate would both succumb to cancer within 14 months of each other.

Rest in peace, both of you.

Labels: Cancer, Grandparents, PTL, Religion

Monday, July 23, 2007

Weird weekend

It was, kind of. I had made the decision to not mow my lawn until at least Monday because of a conversation I’d had with my neighbor about the supposed weekend weather. As it turns out, the really hot weather never did actually arrive. My neighbor on the other side, who usually mows her lawn an hour or two after I do mine, had hired a neighborhood kid to mow hers on Friday night. I pretty much ignored the whole scenario until he finished hers and knocked on my door. He offered to mow mine for $20. I mulled it over for two seconds, and agreed. He told me he is working and saving money to be able to attend a car show later this summer up in Grand Rapids. I know what it’s like to have to save money for goals like that, so I thought I’d help him out.

He commenced mowing while I took a drive to the ATM to get some cash. I got the cash, and stopped briefly at the store, and by the time I got back, he was finished, and sitting there waiting for my return. This bummed me out a bit. It takes me just under an hour to mow my lawn, and that’s without stopping. He did my entire lawn, and, I might add, better than I usually do it, in about 20 minutes. Essentially, I paid the kid $1 per minute. Oh well. I still think it was worth it, because now I don’t have to do it myself.

I’ve probably mentioned this before, but I have 2 iPods that I use for various things. My second one, which has a 60 GB storage capacity, is the one that I use for all of my music and video files. I keep all of the files for that one on the other computer. My original iPod, which has only a 20 GB storage capacity, is the one I use for my various podcasts. Those particular files are never kept permanently, so I maintain this iPod on this computer. Well, I did until this weekend, anyway.

Friday night, before and after the whole mowing transaction, I was trying to download the latest episodes of certain podcasts, but my iTunes on this computer kept locking up on me. I couldn’t get it to work whatsoever, and I still have no idea what was wrong with it. I rebooted the computer, uninstalled the iTunes program and reinstalled it; nothing helped.

Finally, on Saturday afternoon, I took what few podcast files I had, and transferred them to the other computer. I set up the other computer to download all of my podcasts from now on, and uninstalled iTunes from this computer permanently. I had never realized it, but it is possible for me to run both iPods from one program, and only have certain files go to either one. I had just never taken the time to figure out how to do it until now. As an added bonus, deleting both the program itself and all of the files freed up a bunch of space on this computer.

Sunday is my favorite day of the week. Sunday is Movie Day at Casa Bill. That’s the day I get up, fire up a pot of coffee, and sit and watch a movie or two, preferably movies that I haven’t seen previously. This is the best time for me to do it, because I’m just waking up, and tossing coffee down my gullet. That way, I won’t fall asleep while watching, and then have to go back later and figure out where I was.

Well, maybe it wasn’t such a weird weekend after all.

Labels: iPods, iTunes, Lawn mowing, Movies

Friday, July 20, 2007

A morning from hell

It started out okay. I woke up at 0100 as usual, a little overtired because I didn’t get to bed early enough last night (again). I was dreading the workday for once, but not much. Today was the day that our counts of USA Today were tripled, at the behest of some idiot in Circulation at USA Today who suffers from severe RCIS. I wanted to leave the house early, around 0130 or so, just in case the USA driver, who also suffers from RCIS, managed to show up at a decent time, and maybe I could load my 500+ papers and get on the road. In the meantime, I sat down here at the computer to do a little light web surfing to pass the time.

When I opened my eyes again, it was 0230. F___, double F___, and triple F___. Not the best way to start the day, today of ALL days. I quickly dressed, and headed out the door. I was able to borrow my dad’s van for the route today, which was a darn good thing. As I may have written yesterday, there is no way in Hell that 500+ papers would fit into Victor.

I arrived at the Dispatch, all the other drivers had come and gone, and the papers were all sitting there, mocking me. I started throwing bundles into the back of the van, and undoing them so they would be partly ready when I started to arrive at my stops. On a normal day, I arrange all of the papers by quantity, and stack them in such a way so that at each stop I only need to grab the top pile, but there was no way I would have been able to make that work today, so I didn’t even bother trying. Then I discovered that not only do the people at USA Today have RCIS, one or two at the Dispatch do as well. Not only was our paper count tripled, we were also handed advertising signs that I mentioned yesterday for The Simpsons Movie (yuck), but it was decided that today would simply be an awesome day to hand all of the drivers a stack of free publications to drop off at various stops on our routes.

Please understand: I am NOT complaining about the amount of work I had to do today. Granted, it was the heaviest day since I took this job, but it was still a LOT lighter than days I’ve had on other jobs. My only beef is the reasoning behind the amount of work that we had to do today, which I believe I covered last Friday. That’s all.

Anyway, I’ve already written more about this today then I had originally intended, so I will just say now that the workday did get finished, and the work did get done without any major or minor complications. Well, except one. For a few weeks now, for some reason, I’ve made the mistake of miscounting my papers, and coming up short. Today I miscounted in the opposite direction, and wound up with about 70 extra papers. There’s just no middle ground here, I tell yez. All was well that ended well. I met Dad at the casino without being late, and we traded our vehicles back.

I had to wash Victor when I got back to town; he was covered in a few days worth of those damn flies again. Then I went grocery shopping, which shouldn’t have taken very long, but I kept running into people to talk to. That’s why I’m arriving home so late today.

The possible solutions for the truck problem that I mentioned yesterday seem to be a wash, so now I have to come up with a new plan. Great.

That seems to be all the news that’s fit to print. It’s now 1151 by my clock. I’ve been up now for 11 hours and 51 minutes and I haven’t eaten yet, so I’m gonna post this and get some lunch.

Have a great weekend, and see you back here on Monday.

Labels: Busy day, Paper Route, RCIS, Truck

Thursday, July 19, 2007

More on the truck, and other stuff

I talked to a friend of mine yesterday who might be interested in the topper from the truck. The only problem is, his own truck is in dire need of repair, as I mentioned yesterday. So, I’m waiting for him to make a decision. The other thing that might be an issue is whether or not a topper from a Chevy S-10™ will fit on a Ford Ranger™. These issues will be dealt with as they arise.

I talked to Paul over at Home Depot and he told me that his dad knows of a guy who might want to buy the truck itself, either for parts, or to fix and drive. I have no problem if he wants to buy it for parts, but the only way I will sell it and allow it to be fixed and driven is if the guy lives far out of town. Once this truck is no longer mine, I do not want to ever see it again. This may seem silly to some of you, but it’s the way I feel, and nothing is going to change that. Anyway, that’s the current scoop on the truck. Hopefully this will get resolved in the next few days.

I’ve still been debating about whether or not to mow my lawn. Some areas need it, while others don’t. I decided that if I were going to mow, this morning would be an ideal time, because it’s nice and cool outside yet. I got home this morning just as my neighbor pulled into his own driveway from somewhere. I casually mentioned that I was thinking of mowing. I also noticed that he hasn’t mowed his own lawn in nearly as long as me. He then commented that it might be better to hold off for a few days, because the weather over the weekend is supposed to get horrendously hot again, with temps in the 90s, close to 100. If the lawn gets mowed now, and the temps get that high, it’ll end up as just one big patch of dead, brown grass. If mowing is held off, it could possibly remain green. Needless to say, that’s all it took to talk me out of mowing.

The folks in charge of the USA Today have gone overboard lately in their quest to sell more papers. I first discussed what they are doing last Friday. It’s been getting even more unreasonable (less reasonable?) this week. I took a look at my numbers for tomorrow, Friday, and between the USA Today and the Dispatch, they have me scheduled for 515 papers. I now have to try and contact my dad, and see if we can swap vehicles for the early morning, because there is no way in hell that Victor will be able to carry 515 papers. I have it planned, that if Dad agrees, I’ll drive to Crosby tonight and drop off Victor, and bring his van home. Then, tomorrow after I finish the route, I can wait at the Casino for him to come by in Victor on the way to his own job, and we can swap back from there. If he doesn’t agree, then I have absolutely no idea what I’m going to do. With gas prices where they are, I’m sure as hell not going to do the route in two trips. I wouldn’t do that anyway. With the amount of driving that I normally do, to double it would just be asinine, and it would make my workday even longer.

Now, I just got a call from one of the circulation managers at the Dispatch. Not only am I taking out a triple amount of USA Today tomorrow, I also have to carry and distribute rack placement cards to announce that there is a free poster inside tomorrow’s edition. The poster is to promote The Simpsons Movie. God Almighty. I have no interest in this particular piece of celluloid. Why do I need to take my time and effort to help promote it? The hell of it is, with all of the media-sheep out there in the world who all flock to shit like this, it really doesn’t NEED any more promotion than it’s already received.

Oh well, that’s my little rant for the day. See you here tomorrow, same place, if not exactly the same time.

Labels: Lawn mowing, Paper Route, Simpsons, Truck

Wednesday, July 18, 2007

Sleeping in the truck in the heat, or something

I went to bed extra early last night to see if it helped on the route at all. It did to a degree. Once the route was finished, I didn’t need to stop for a nap on the way home, but once I actually arrived home, I could not keep my eyes open for any reason. I’ve had three short naps between 0830 and now, 1127. I really wish I knew why I can’t get any rest from sleep. Even more, I really wish I knew what to do about it.

Either this afternoon or tomorrow I’m going to head over to Crosby and start salvaging my stuff from the truck. I called a friend of mine this morning to see if he’d be interested in buying the topper. I’ll hear from him in a day or two. His problem is, a bunch of stuff went wrong on his own truck, and he’s in the midst of deciding if he wants to pay an $800 repair bill, or just scrap it. I tell ya, if my repairs only came to $800, they’d be done already. Oh well.

The weather had been so nice and cool for over a week, and now it’s back to hot and miserable. I cannot stand the heat at all. Most people prefer heat over humidity, but I hate both.

I think I’m going to cut this short today and see if I can get some of my stuff hauled out of the truck.

Labels: Heat, Sleep, Truck, Weather

Tuesday, July 17, 2007

Making decisions

I took a nap this morning again after the route. I didn’t intend it, but I ended up sleeping until 0900. I hate when I do that, but apparently I needed the rest again. It’s strange, no matter what time I go to bed, I can never seem to get enough sleep before it’s time to get up and head to work. Looks like it’s something I need to work on a bit harder.

After several weeks of not needing it, my lawn is at a point where I should mow it again. The thing is, it’s so damn hot & muggy out right now, I honestly don’t feel like doing it. Not that I ever feel like doing it, but it’s easier on cooler days. Today, the air is still, and not much comfort is to be found.

I’ve pretty much made up my mind that the pickup is going to be scrapped. As I mentioned in an earlier post, right now I’m just taking time to truly convince myself of it. It will be done, and soon, but I need time to adjust to it. It’s not going to be easy.

One problem I’ve had with this is that a lot of people have been offering their opinions on it. I appreciate it, but to be honest, you really aren’t helping. This is something I need to do on my own. Most people agree with me, that it’s not worth putting approximately $2700 into the repair of a 16-year-old pickup. My grandfather, who owned it before me certainly would not have done that. My main problem with the folks offering advice is that their advice is often contradictory in and of itself. “Yeah, you’re probably better off just getting rid of it. Such a shame though, it’s got such low mileage, and there is the sentimentality. Are you really sure you shouldn’t just get it fixed?” As I said, this does NOT help me at all. I’ve made up my mind, I need to make peace with my decision before I can actually go through with it, and I don’t need to have any more doubt cast upon it.

Oddly enough, I’ve been able to adapt the “5 stages of grief” approach to this entire event.

1. Denial – “No, damn it, I did NOT just hit a deer. My truck does NOT have all kinds of damage to it.”

2. Anger – “ALL deer need to die slow, horrible deaths, and become extinct forever.”

3. Bargaining – “OK, I’ve towed it to the auto-body shop. I’ll get an estimate for repairs, and everything will be just fine. Please, let it be reasonable, and easier to fix than it looks.”

4. Depression – This is where I am right now. I love that truck, and I don’t want to see it go, even though I know that it’s the best decision at this point. I’m really not coping well with this.

5. Acceptance – Once I’ve fully convinced myself that I need to do this, I will have arrived here.

Everything from here on out is going to have to be done in steps. I need to call a friend of mine who once expressed interest in buying my topper, and see if he’s still interested. I need to go salvage all of my remaining personal belongings out of the truck, including the personalized plates. Then, finally, I have to make arrangements with a junkyard to take it, and then determine if I will have it towed there, or if they’ll go get it, or what.

It’s not going to be easy to deal with all of this, but I have to do what I have to do.

Damn it.

Labels: 5 Stages, Decisions, Random thoughts, Truck

Sunday, July 15, 2007

My longest short entry ever

Labels: 2000 Bloggers, Further reading, Links, Long post

Friday, July 13, 2007

A short Friday rant

I’ve been in a pissy mood most of the morning. They upped our counts of USA Today at work again. The USA Today folks just do not understand that the paper is not selling as well as they want it to sell right now. We haven’t had the tourism in the Brainerd Lakes Area that we usually have during the summer, due to gas prices, the economy, etc. Plus, now that we’ve passed Independence Day, the tourism isn’t going to get any better this year.

Technically, I don’t mind the raised counts, except for the fact that this is Friday, and the guy who drives the USAs up from the Cities can never make it up here at a decent time, so, as always, my Friday was about half an hour behind schedule. Plus, the few Citiots who are managing to make it up here for the weekend are doing their damndest to make up for the missing people by driving even worse than usual. Folks, the people who live up here drive badly enough. Don’t come up here and make it worse. Stay the hell home down south for a weekend or two; it won’t kill you. Whereas if you come up here and piss me off some more, I’m likely to kill you.

Believe it or not, my mood has actually improved since I got home. Nothing like a few cups of coffee, and knowing I have two days to myself.

I’m currently waiting for my aunt to arrive from Crosby. I have an errand to do, and I need her help with it. So, it’s a matter of waiting for a while.

Other than all this, there is nothing really going on, so I guess I’ll close this up, and let everybody get going on their weekends. Have great ones, everybody.

See ya all on Monday.

Labels: Errands, Paper Route, Tourists, USA Today

Thursday, July 12, 2007

Oh, those wacky Chine'e

I am actually writing this late Wednesday afternoon, while sipping on that bottle of Hawaii® water I told you about yesterday. It’s not bad, as far as water goes.

I had lunch with my friend Mike at the Chinese restaurant yesterday. It’s actually one of four in the area. One, called the “Great Wall,” I have never been to the Great Wall, on the advice of people I know who have been there. Then, there is the “Diamond House,” where I have been a few times, but the food there seems kind of bland to me, particularly since I’m used to eating at the “China Buffet.” The fourth one is the “China Garden,” where I have been exactly once, shortly after they first opened last year, and I was not impressed at all. Which is surprising, because it’s owned and operated by the same people who own and operate the “China Buffet.”

I’ve been eating regularly at the China Buffet for several years now. I like it. Well, obviously, or I wouldn’t eat there regularly and – oh, just forget it. Anyway, I usually refer to my visits there as “going out to eat with those heathen Chinee.” This probably sounds politically incorrect, and it may very well be in this day and age, but I believe I established my views on political correctness here. At any rate, my usage of the term isn’t intended as any kind of an insult. It’s merely a reference to a poem by Bret Harte.

It hadn’t taken many visits to the place before I had established a pattern. The two or three main waiters at the beginning got to know me fairly quickly. They knew upon sight that I liked to sit in a booth, and that I wanted a Coke® with my meal. This choice of beverage doesn’t indicate any preference of Coke® over Pepsi®; it’s just that this establishment serves Coca-Cola® products. Their service was always great, and I always tipped them generously for their efforts.

When the China Garden opened, most of their experienced personnel went there, and the China Buffet hired a new crop. These newer folk do fairly well, but the fact that none of them know me anymore has led to a bit of confusion at times.

Now, when I go in, and order a Coke®, I always have to be very careful, and specify that what I want is a “REGULAR Coke®,” otherwise I am invariably served a Diet Coke®. Sometimes, even after carefully specifying “REGULAR Coke®,” I am served the diet variety anyway. Mike attributes this to the fact that Diet Coke® is now a leading seller over Coke®, and therefore they are more used to people ordering Diet. Mike always orders Dr. Pepper® when we go there. I always have to check the beverages once they are served to make sure I didn’t end up with the Dr. Pepper®, because that stuff would definitely make me heave if I tasted it accidentally.

The main wait staff of the place now consists of three young women. All seem to be very efficient at their jobs, if not a little over-enthusiastic. They are constantly running from table to table in order to serve beverage refills to the patrons, which is nice. The problem with this is that they usually come to our table just as one of us has begun a lengthy diatribe on whatever topic we are discussing, and then we get interrupted at least twice per sentence. For example:

ME: So, I was watching this show on TV las--

WAITRESS: You want more beverage?

ME: Um, er, yes please. REGULAR Coke®.

WAITRESS: OK, thank you.

She then grabs my glass, and turns to leave.

ME: Anyway, this show I was wat--

She turns back to the table, and goes to Mike.

WAITRESS: You also want more beverage?

MIKE: Yes, please, Dr. Pepper®.

She grabs his glass as well, and turns to leave.

ME: This show I was --

WAITRESS: Thank you, I’ll be right back.

It would be funny if it didn’t happen twice per visit.

Another waitress there is one who we refer to as the ‘plate grabber.’ Buffet restaurants, in accordance with the Health Department, insist that you use a new plate each time you go to the buffet for more grub. This girl watches everybody’s plates with greater accuracy than the Hubble Telescope. The absolute SECOND you take your last bite off of your current plate, BAM! she is right there, reaching for it and demanding to know if you are finished with it. Excuse me, miss, may I at least chew this bite before you shock me into swallowing it?

I believe the third waitress is fairly new. She didn’t look familiar to me when we were in there this time, and she doesn’t have a keen grasp of English just yet. This in itself is not a crime. I’m just pointing it out.

During this visit, she was the one who came up to do the beverage-refill dance for us. I needed no refill, so then she aimed her attention at Mike.

WAITRESS: You want more drink?

MIKE: Yes, please, Dr. Pepper®.

WAITRESS: (puzzled) Dr. Pepper®?

MIKE: Yes, Dr. Pepper®.

WAITRESS: Hmmm . . . Dr. Pepper® . . .

She then set Mike’s glass back down in front of him, turned around, and called out in Chinese to another waitress who came scurrying over to the table. This waitress turned to Mike.

SECOND WAITRESS: You want more to drink?

MIKE: Yes, please, Dr. Pepper®.

SECOND WAITRESS: OK, Dr. Pepper®, thank you.

She then turned and handed Mike’s glass back to the first waitress, and informed her, in English, mind you, “Dr. Pepper®.” The first waitress nodded in perfect understanding.

“Ah, Dr. Pepper®,” she repeated, and headed off to fetch it. At this point, I was dying laughing, and wondering what exactly the translation problem was between American English and Chinese English. Mike was trying not to laugh, as the second waitress was now making apologies.

“Sorry, sir, she is new, and not have very good English yet.”

“That’s ok, no problem,” Mike told her.

I swear, we laughed about that for the rest of the time we were in there.

It was a pleasant visit anyway, and it helped take my mind off the fact that I need to make a decision on what to do about my truck. I’m pretty sure I already know my final decision, but I don’t want to admit it even to myself yet. Just thinking about the whole truck thing gives me a stomachache.

More on that later as I make my decision official.

Labels: Beverages, Chinese Food, Restaurants, Waitress

Wednesday, July 11, 2007

Water. Nature's liquid, er, something

I’ve discovered to my chagrin that I’m a bit of a sheep, at least in certain few areas. Allow me to clarify: this mainly goes for consumer goods, and NOT media entertainment. I will not listen to most modern music, and no matter how much it was hyped, I absolutely refuse to watch this piece of shit. I’ve seen clips here and there, and I cannot believe that a lot of people I know consider this to be the greatest flick of the generation.

No, I’m mainly a sheep when it comes to anything that can be ingested. I love McDonald’s®, Pepsi-Cola®, Coca-Cola®, KFC®, Famous Dave’s®, etc. However, over the past few years, I have fallen victim to a bit of hype I never thought would affect me.

Back in the 1980s, when bottled water first started to make an appearance, I thought it was the most ridiculous thing I had ever seen. I was in agreement with the older folks, what is the point of paying for something in a bottle that came out of your tap just as easily? I swore up and down that I would never, ever purchase water in a bottle.

Ah, the promises and solemn vows we make when we are but wee troglodyte hellspawn. I find it ironic that something I saw through and never fell for as a kid would trick me into its embrace as an adult. I love bottled water. I buy it by the case now, so there’s always some in the refrigerator. I’ve even taken up my aunt’s habit of freezing them. That works great for me. I keep a bottle on my nightstand when I’m sleeping, and it thaws just fast enough to stay cold and satisfy my thirst when I wake up throughout the night needing it. I also take a frozen bottle with me on the route every morning. Even there, it thaws at just the perfect rate, and stays cold.

My water of choice, that I always keep in my house, and go through about 2 cases a week in the summer, is Dasani®, put out by the Coca-Cola® company. Now, I admit, that in a blind taste test, I would not be able to tell any bottled water from tap water, but I like this stuff because it tastes pretty good, and I love the convenience of being able to just grab a bottle any time. I only drink the plain, though; I don’t care for any of the flavored stuff.

My dad thinks I drink Dasani® because I used to work for Coke™. Actually, I liked it before I ever thought I would work there. I had tried Pepsi’s™ variant, Aquafina®, but it always tasted kind of gritty to me.

The first bottled water that I had ever heard of was probably the same as all the rest of you, a French variant called evian®. For all I know, evian® could very well have been THE first water that was ever bottled for consumer purchase. I never actually tried evian® until about two years ago. I actually found it to be kind of bland, even for water.

I started actually thinking about bottled water on Monday evening while doing a bit of grocery shopping. I went to the water aisle to get a case of Dasani®, and for the first time, I really took a look around at all of the various brands on sale. I even bought samples of a few, just to try them.

As of this writing, I’ve only tried one, because I had to put all the samples in the refrigerator overnight to get cold. It’s a fairly new one, from what I understand, called smartwater®. I tried a bottle of it yesterday morning on the route; it wasn’t bad. Apparently it’s vitamin-enriched. I didn’t read enough on it to know which vitamins, but at least they don’t affect the taste of the water itself.

There are two that I bought that I haven’t tried yet. One is Hawaii® water, and the other is a brand from Wales called TyNant®. I must admit, I bought these two simply because I thought their bottle designs were cool.

At any rate, I think I’ll be sticking with Dasani® for the long haul, simply because it’s less expensive, and I like it enough to not care about the more expensive brands.

UPDATE: I finally called the mechanic about the pickup. He told me that he couldn’t find any decent used parts for it, and the next cheapest would be to go with after-market parts. Even with that, though, I’m still looking at about $2700 for the whole thing, if not a bit more. So, I have some serious decisions to make over the next few days about whether I want to pay that kind of money, or just get rid of it. The truck has extreme sentimental value, but sometimes you still have to let even that go.

It won’t be an easy decision, no matter which way I decide to go.

Labels: Bottled water, Media influence, Sheep, Truck

Tuesday, July 10, 2007

Wabbit season, and other things

I’ve noticed lately that this town is full of wild rabbits. I see them running around everywhere. I also see them everywhere when I’m out doing the paper route every day. Has it always been like this, and I’ve just never noticed, or are they more numerous now than in past years? Not that it matters; I have no problem with any of them.

If I did have a problem, I’d have set a trap for the young fella that has decided to take up residence in my yard. He’s not harming anybody or anything, so I figure he can do what he wants. (By the way, I have no idea if he’s a she, or if she’s a he. I’m using “he” and “his” as generic pronouns.)

I first noticed him a couple of weeks ago as I came outside to leave for the route. He was sitting in my yard looking around, and when I came out the door he dove underneath the front steps. I stopped to look at him for a few moments, but he just sat there. When I got back home a couple of hours later, he was sitting in the yard again, and once more ran underneath the steps. I just laughed, and went inside. I now see him almost every day, to the point where I greet him by saying “How’s it going, Oswald?”

My worst fear is that Oswald is going to get trapped inside my garage one of these days. He’s never expressed any interest in going inside, but that really means nothing. My garage has no electricity in it yet, so there are no lights. I go in through the side door, and I have to leave that open to see until I get the big door open. I keep worrying that while I’m doing this, he’s going to sneak in through the side door, and be trapped when I close everything and leave. The last thing I need is to come home and go into the garage to find a dead rabbit, or even worse, have it start screaming at me as I open the door.

But, he seems to be pretty good about staying outside, so I’m not going to worry about it too much.

It’s been almost 3 weeks now, and I still haven’t heard anything on the truck, so I’m going to call the place this morning when I’m done with work. I figure it’s been long enough to wait.

Yesterday was a wasted day. I got home, took care of a couple of small chores, and then fell asleep in the chair again from noon until 1500. The problem is, Sunday nights are the worst for me to try and get any sleep. Between Friday and Saturday nights, my sleep pattern gets screwed up, so by the time Sunday night rolls around, it’s almost a wasted effort.

I’ve started once again to move away from my habit of writing about “today on the paper route,” because I know it really can’t be that interesting. I’ve thought often about changing this into some kind of opinion piece, but the problem in that area is, I have almost no idea what’s going on in the world. I find the news to be dry and dull, and always full of the same stuff, so I tend to avoid it. Heck, I deliver two different newspapers 5 days a week, and I can’t be bothered to read more than a headline on either of them on any given day.

However, I have realized that there are things in this world that I can write about, and so I’m going to try and do as much of that as possible from here on out, and maybe pick up some more readers. I’ve noticed that my readership is declining lately. I can’t promise a hotly interesting topic every single day (for proof, just read everything I’ve ever written up to this point) but I will try to do it as often as possible.

Anyway, that will all start after today. I’m going to get this posted, and head off to work.

Have a nice day.

Labels: Chores, Rabbits, Truck, Writing

Monday, July 09, 2007

Death and technology

I almost killed myself on Saturday night. It’s not the first time, either. I had three small steaks that I was cooking on the stove. When they were done, I took the smaller two out of their pan, and left the bigger one in its pan with the stove turned off. I then went out to eat and watch some TV. I finished eating, and continued to watch TV. I kept noticing that the house seemed to be getting warmer, and my eyes were starting to burn and tear up. I walked into the kitchen to discover that while I had shut off the heat under the remaining steak, I had left the flame burning merrily along underneath the empty pan.

I shut off the flame, and threw the pan into the sink, where I started the water running on it to cool it down. Not the greatest move I’ve made lately. Smoke almost immediately filled the kitchen and the living room. I threw open the front door and aimed the fan outside, and I turned on the fan above the stove as well. That’s when the smoke hit me. I started coughing as though coughing had just been invented. It took roughly 15 minutes for the smoke to clear out, and not once during that time was I able to stop coughing. My entire upper torso is in agony today because of it. I couldn’t stop coughing, and I couldn’t get a decent breath, either.

I know it must sound absolutely hilarious, but believe me, I don’t find it the least bit humorous. Especially since this isn’t the first time I’ve made such a mistake. On Tuesday of last week, I had heated up a box of frozen chicken in the oven. About an hour after I had finished eating, and stowed the leftovers inside the refrigerator is when I noticed I had left the oven turned on when I removed the food.

This scares the hell out of me. I do not make mistakes of this nature, and yet I’ve done it twice in one week. What’s next?

While that was certainly the most dangerous aspect of the weekend, my adventures were far from over.

Ever notice that when disasters happen, it’s usually at the most inconvenient time possible? I know, that’s fairly obvious, but once again, I had computer problems this weekend, and as usual, they started late on Saturday night just as I was getting ready to go to bed.

I was doing some random net surfing before heading off to bed, and somehow I clicked on something I shouldn’t have. The next thing I know, my computer had downloaded and installed all kinds of crazy shit, and there was nothing I could do about it. (Don’t worry; it’s all cleared up now, so you’re not going to catch anything by reading this page.)

My computer had installed some kind of an after-market program that supposedly detected adware, spyware, and other malware in your computer. The problem was, this software itself fit all three categories. There was absolutely nothing I could do to get rid of it. I don’t even have any restoration CDs for this computer. None were sent with it when Mom and I ordered it last year, and I hadn’t yet made it a point to order any. Most computers nowadays, you can make your own as long as you have a CD or DVD burner, but Mom had no need for either, so her computer has none. It has a regular CD drive, and a floppy drive, but there are no accommodations in the software to make recovery floppies. It appeared that I was stuck. However, since it was after midnight, I went to bed, determined to get up and fight with this beast over coffee on Sunday morning.

I attempted to use the System Restore function, which is a function built into the pc that when activated, restores the computer to an earlier point in time, thereby deleting anything that happened afterward. I tried it several times; each at different checkpoints, but the computer wouldn’t restore itself to any earlier checkpoints. I don’t know if the restore program itself was faulty, or if it was due to something in the malware.

Finally, I discovered another program in the computer, which was a variation of the system restore function. This program essentially did the exact same thing as a restoration CD, but without erasing your vital stuff. I activated it, and went on my merry way.

It took 20 minutes for the computer to restore itself. All of my saved files, bookmarks, writing and whatnot were still there, thankfully. The only thing I had to do was visit the site where I bought my antivirus software, download it again, and reinstall it, much as I did back around the first of February. I ended up downloading and installing the damn thing six times before it finally worked properly.

Then I had to set about reinstalling a few of my personal programs that hadn’t survived the restoration, like my copy of Microsoft Word®, iTunes®, and so on. I also had to upgrade my browser. All in all, this entire bit of business took up most of my Sunday. I finished everything around 1600, which is when I had supper, and then came in to type this up.

It’s now 1900 last night, so I’m going to close this up and go watch TV before going to sleep for work. Enjoy the day.

Labels: Computers, Malware, Smoke, Steak

Friday, July 06, 2007

Rambling on toward the weekend

Feels like a long time since I’ve sat down to write one of these entries. Yesterday’s entry, and Tuesday’s were both written on the nights before, and of course there wasn’t one on Wednesday. But now I have to do one; it’s the end of the week.

It has been a really quiet week here at Casa Bill, home of the world-famous Mid-Life Crisis headquarters. I’ve done next to nothing except my paper route all week. The rest of the time has been spent just putzing around. I was thinking of heading south for the day on Wednesday, but once I got home from the route and took a short nap in preparation, I suddenly didn’t feel so hot. Just one of those passing things I guess.

Wednesday, as some of you know, was a holiday here in the United States known as “Independence Day.” This day is also known to ignorant provincials everywhere as the “Fourth of July,” but I believe I’ve covered that already.

(For those of you who are wondering, “ignorant provincial” is one of my very few lapses into the realm of political correctness; it is a term I use instead of “brain-dead redneck.” Now, feel free to carry on with the rest of the entry.)

I did some actual running around yesterday in the afternoon. I got a haircut, and went grocery shopping. Excitement at its finest, eh? As always, it’s actually ‘word-count padding’ at its finest.

I’ve been staring at my lawn for days trying to figure out if it needs to be mowed or not. Practicality would suggest ‘no,’ because we’ve had very little rain, and it hasn’t grown much. The odd part is, it hasn’t grown as one complete lawn. There are tall sections, and short sections, and sections that haven’t grown at all. I guess I will ultimately wait until I hear somebody else in the neighborhood running a mower.

Now the weekend is here. I haven’t looked at a forecast, so I have no idea what the weather is going to do, but that’s never really been a factor in my plans. I tend to do what I want, when I want. It’s a great life. Right now, I’m sipping coffee and typing a stream-of-consciousness piece that hopefully will have about two minutes of literary value once I’ve posted it for all to see. Kinda proves what a quiet week it’s been.

Still no news on the truck. I gave the guy a break this week due to the holiday and didn’t bug him about it. If I don’t hear from him on Monday, I’ll call him on Tuesday and determine the skinny.

The time has come to close and post. I’m starting to feel hungry, so a desire to quell that feeling is taking precedence over trying to write an interesting paragraph.

Have a great weekend, and see you back here on Monday.

Labels: Haircut, Hunger, Lawn mowing, Quiet week

Thursday, July 05, 2007

Happy 17th of September

Why would you wish somebody a “Happy Fourth of July?”

At Christmastime, do you wish people a “Happy 25th of December?” No.

On St. Patrick’s Day, do you wish people a “Happy 17th of March?” No.

On Halloween, do you wish people a “Happy 31st of October?” No.

Get the idea, yet?

Folks, if you live in the USA, and celebrate the particular holiday that falls on July 4th, it is called INDEPENDENCE DAY. I may not be well schooled in this area, but I have never personally heard of ANY country that celebrates a “Fourth of July.”

The only exception to this particular rule would be “Cinco de Mayo.”

I don’t mind when people ask, “Do you have plans for the Fourth?” That is acceptable, because it can be applied to any date.

I’ve even started doing it. My entire previous entry on this site was devoted to remembering various Fourths of July, and I even concluded by giving well wishes for it. See what you’ve done to me? So, before you blast me in emails or comments, please understand that I have acknowledged my mistake, and I am officially apologizing for it right here.

The only other thing that bugs me as much is on Thanksgiving when people tell me, “Happy Turkey Day.” I know that in this instance, people just think they’re being cutesy, but STOP IT. I do know that this holiday has come to symbolize gorging yourself more than anything else nowadays, but that still does not change the name of it. Not everybody eats turkey on that day, either. Some have ham. Some have roast beef. One year, when I was a kid, I asked my mom to make us ribs. She loved to tell the story of how she was standing in the supermarket checkout lane, surrounded by people buying turkeys and hams, and getting strange looks from them. One woman was bold enough to ask Mom what was the deal. Mom just said, “My son wants me to make ribs for Thanksgiving.” Most of the people around her then expressed their desire to do the same, but couldn’t, because their own families would have a fit.

So, please, folks, put some thought into what you’re saying.

Labels: Holidays, Independence, Ribs, Turkey

Tuesday, July 03, 2007

Fourth of July ruminations

I was going to call about my truck today, since I haven’t heard anything yet, but I just realized that tomorrow is a holiday, so I’ll hold off for another couple of days.

I remember when I was working at Target, I always had to work on the Fourth of July, and it was such a waste of time because there was nothing to do while I was there. It was basically 8 hours of walking around at time and a half. I can’t complain about the holiday pay, but sometimes extra pay has to take a back seat to free time. I always refused overtime while I was there, too, unless it was absolutely vital to the job. I valued time off more than I did overtime, and overtime almost always resulted in a slightly smaller paycheck than I got for a normal 40-hour week, due to taxes. With that in mind, I never really saw the point to it.

Finally, during my last two or three years working there, I started taking my week’s vacation during the week of the Fourth. Getting a week’s vacation was always easier than getting an individual day off, for some reason. I made sure to request the vacation time several months in advance, so that they wouldn’t realize what I was doing, and they would approve it.

I have no plans yet for the Fourth this year, other than there will be no blog entry on that day. Most of you read this at work, I think, so there’s no real point in slapping one up if nobody will be where they can read it.

I remember one Fourth of July, back in ’96 or ’97 when I was at Target. My friend Paul and I had worked that day, and we got off work about 1430 or so. I don’t recall quite what the problem was, but we were both irritable as hell about having had to work that day. I wasn’t driving in those days; my car had died, and I couldn’t afford another, so I caught a ride home from him, and we stopped off to get some beer on the way.

We got back to my place, and decided to watch the parade, because the apartment where I lived at the time was right along the parade route. We set up shop along the street, and proceeded to guzzle the brews, one after another.

The combination of beer, hot sun, and the fact that neither of us had eaten much that day took its toll on us very quickly. Before long, we were laughing, waving at every parade entry that went by, and stumbling around like lunatics trying to catch any candy being thrown. It was a great time.

There’s no real point to the above anecdote, just that it happened. Anyway, all of you have a great Fourth of July, at least those of you in countries that celebrate it. See you again right back here on Thursday.

Labels: Beer, July 4th, Target, Truck

Monday, July 02, 2007

Starting a new week with even more random thoughts

I love this “random thoughts” theme I have going. I think I’ll continue it for a while until I run out of them.

Some of you may have noticed that I occasionally put clickable links into the text for emphasis on certain topics. I thought they stood out enough, but I’ve heard recently that they aren’t all that noticeable. So, I’ve taken steps to make them more obvious. Other blogs tend to make their links noticeable by underlining the key words or phrases, but I’ve never liked the way it looked. From now on, all clickable links in the actual entry will look like this. I’m currently going back through ALL my entries, and changing them for anybody who cares to go back and look. I kinda doubt it though.

Independence Day this week, on Wednesday. That means I’ll have an easy day on the paper route; there will only be the Dispatch to deal with, so it will be a very short day. Those are fun. My 3 ½ to 4-hour workday is cut down to about 45 minutes, not counting drive time.

I just remembered the entry I made back on the 12th of this month. It was about how the 29th was my one-year anniversary here on Blogger. I was going to do some jaunts down memory lane here and there, but I just now realized that the 29th has come and gone without me noticing it. I guess the big anniversary celebration prize will have to go unawarded. I’m guessing that the truck fiasco kind of overrode a lot of other things in my mind. Oh well. It’s not like the anniversary was a big deal.

Saturday was a big day for gadget geeks. Apple rolled out their new, much-hyped iPhone for sale to the general public. I only know one person who bothered to get one, and she loves it. Me, I love gadgets, but I think I can live without this one. I’m not overly fond of newly released items like this; they very often don’t have all the bugs worked out yet. Besides which, I already have a cell phone, and iPhone only has service through AT&T, which I don’t like at all. Also, the iPhone only has a mere 4 to 8 GB space capacity. When you consider that my first iPod was 20 GB, and that was not nearly enough space, there’s no point in me even attempting to use this one. If you got one and like it, that’s fine, but it’s just not for me.

Yesterday, in other iPhone news, I stumbled across this story while reading articles on FARK. There is some speculation as to whether or not this story is true, or if the media staged it, but if it is true, I think it’s funny as hell. The woman is an obvious asshat. But, if it turns out to be staged, I’ll just chalk it up as yet another of the deep, bitter disappointments that Life has thrown me from which I may never recover. Oh, wait, no I won’t. I’ll just think of it as something that could have been funny. I do want to believe it, though. I mean, come on, a news organization such as FOX would never make up a story, would they?

Well. I think that’s enough for today, and at any rate, I need to get going on the route. I’m up extra early today, so I thought I’d do the blog right away. Have a good day.

Labels: Anniversary, FARK, iPhone, July 4th